AoC total player base should be around 700k with 300k in US based on number of boxes shipped and few player tracking systems won't know for sure till the industry releases sales figures end of this month. Anyway the sales should surpass Lotro, vanguard, city of heroes and eq 2. If you do not include GW it will 2nd most sucessful MMO in US.

who cares what the wow fanbois think?  they have their game, I have mine.  everyone's happy.

Wait until the honeymoon is over gents :]

I don't need to speculate, I know how bad FC will drop the ball.  And it's sad, truely, because there is/was so much potential for AoC.

Once you get the run-thru, patent-pending customer "service" that is FunCom you'll perhaps think it a fluke.  Give them the benefit of the doubt and they'll bankroll it.

Other than that, I think the comparisions (and hilarious posts) aren't warranted just yet.  When the time comes, though, I promise I won't say "I told you so".

People need to read more.

I never said it would or wouldn't beat WoW.

Another reason why a lot of mmo's do not take off because you got rude noob haters like maggot.  We are so sorry that the game has only been out for 2 days and we are trying to learn how to play all great beta master!

Least you people can log on.......

the best thing on that thread is someone said " about the same quality of graphics as wow"

  I'm not sure what they would be scared of.  AoC can't even be played by the majority of WoW's users based on system specs alone.   Hell, over half of its US fanbase weren't even MMOer's before WoW...and they all probably grit teeth when they realized they had to pay monthly.  You can bet even less of THEM will be forking over tons of cash for upgrades.  After that you have to remove all of the eastern players...none of which will be one iota impressed by AoC's pretty. 

  The only people WoW stands to lose are the PC elite.  Not exactly a terrifying figure if you are being honest with yourself.  I'm sure its plenty to score Funcom a profit and all...but lets no go shooting over the limits suggesting WoW players have anything to fear from it.  Most of all...its not all that "different" from WoW's gameplay.  So, even among the elite, you have to remove those players of which whom are tired of the raiding treadmill. 

  Well...I guess you don't have to remove ALL of them.  Some will still play it because no other game is really innovating this genre yet either, and AoC has better combat (so I'm told).  I'm sure there are at least SOME people who will pay for "slightly less stinking" crap....lord knows thats all WoW is.  It DOES have the advantage of stinking less...AND being able to be played on ancient machines.

Lol, all the wow fanbois act like WoW launched with 8 million people. It took them 3 years to hit that mark, give AoC time and the fears will become a reality.

Just letting you guys know, WoW has been TANKING in player numbers. There are only about 6 million players total that are actively playing, down from that 10.7 million.

Looking at the NA sub numbers there are over 3 million total active players, however less than half of those (1,559,484) are level 70s.


Source: WoW Census ; http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census.php?serverid=-2&factionid=-1&minlevel=70&maxlevel=70&servertypeid=-1

I believe it goes by 30-90 day old reports, so this is all BEFORE AoC.

P.S- Yes WoW Census is quite reliable, not to mention the fact that we are talking about large numbers (millions/thousands) where you do not have to have the tens down to get the picture.

Numbers...people get to caught up in them. Anyone remember how many copies the Sims sold for the past years on end? I don't think anyone here played those or would say "Omg! That game MUST be good because it has millions of players". Numbers aren't everything usually.

Originally posted by UOvet

Numbers...people get to caught up in them. Anyone remember how many copies the Sims sold for the past years on end? I don't think anyone here played those or would say "Omg! That game MUST be good because it has millions of players". Numbers aren't everything usually.

Actually, The Sims (2 series, which I assume you are talking about) is an awesome game. I have all of the expansions and stuff packs for it, and a sub to a player community for mods. Initially WoW was a great game as well and the numbers did represent that. Now, as indicated by my prior post in this thread, WoW is going downhill in quality- as are the active player numbers. 4.7 million players lost somewhere? Ouch!

So numbers do matter. Don't worry though, AoC seems to be doing quite well from what I can tell. Give it a bit of time.

It's early on and I'm sure AoC subscriptions will grow significantly.  A lot of people I know are waiting for the first couple of weeks to pass so that things are sorted out from launch.  I'd play now but my little corner of North America doesn't even have the game on any store shelves yet - sigh.

Originally posted by Housam

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=5973991085&sid=1

look at this post...just makes me laugh

 

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Ok This is a relased photo of AoC, I have added some bits to it to point out the faults

 

http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ageofconan2008042000481lq9.jpg

1. Very very bad action bars, if you want to call it those. It is worst then a free MMO. Seriously

2. The graphics..... Are not that good I have seen much better!

3. Obviously there are no raids or hardcore PvP, becouse it will be inpossible to raid with that group UI and those health bars

4. I have read somewere that the game takes a BEAST of a computer to play at an acceptable FPS, weather this is true or not it another thing but I for one think its belivable

Overall there better be a damn good PvP/Raid system and the classes better be 100% balenced, becouse I personaly could not play a game with that sort of UI.....

If you want a game go play Generic Free MMO #10347 Becouse it is better then this excuse of a game

The only reason they have developed this is get money from everyone that goes out and buys it on the first day thinking it will be the best, Then they will give up on it and keep the money, A similer thing happened with Fury, if you remember it

And to all posts here saying "Lol its only in beta u must be a fan boi" and "They will fix this, this is only beta"

The game is 1 Month away from releasing. They cannot completly redesign the UI, and fix the effects and graphics problems in 1 month, The game will ship like this. Blizzard has nothing to worry about

The End

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QUOTED HERE FOR EASE

Thanks for the post, Let me say this, the only reason WoW has a huge player base, is because its the only functional game 1-70 that doesnt have as many problems as its competition.  AOC has been out for a couple of days and has 300k+ active subscribers.  After the dust settles, the people that prefer skill and customization will be on AOC, and the others who just want to get on and just wait for heroics and drops so they can raid can go back to WoW.  AOC has a good future, WoW's future was screwed up ever since they released TBC (The Burning Crusade) and then decided to raise the level range again to 80, meaning all your great epics count for nothing and your back at the whole repetetive lets do this gear grinding again. AOC will be the next best game for a long time to come, Warhammer may be its equal if they dont screw it up, my friend in War's beta so far says he doesnt like where they are going with it, but only time will tell.

Originally posted by UOvet

Numbers...people get to caught up in them. Anyone remember how many copies the Sims sold for the past years on end? I don't think anyone here played those or would say "Omg! That game MUST be good because it has millions of players". Numbers aren't everything usually.

Number aren't everything, but they ARE something.

You cannot say The Sims is a terrible game despite its stellar sales.  That just doesn't make any sense.  The purpose of a game is to entertain, and there is no way in the world you would see that many people buying a game that didn't entertain them.

At times, I LOVE The Sims and can play it for hours and days.  At other times, I can't believe I ever wasted so much time on it.  Overall, though, I have to say it's very good at what it sets out to do.

No game is going to appeal to everyone, but you can't say it's bad just because it doesn't appeal to you.

I personally don't like Guild Wars at all, but I know it's good at what it does, and part of the reason I know that is because a lot of people who enjoy PvP think it's great.

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Originally posted by Enigma
why do you feel the need to quote a WoW post if you are confidant that AoC will be successful?
And, who the hell cares if WoW is better or if AoC is better. Just play the game that you like. This thread reminds me of two rival high school cheerleading teams poking fun with each other and not seeing the imperfections within their own squad.

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I think you misunderstood me....i just found it funny...and wanted to share it with the world

Originally posted by Hexxeity

 

Originally posted by UOvet

Numbers...people get to caught up in them. Anyone remember how many copies the Sims sold for the past years on end? I don't think anyone here played those or would say "Omg! That game MUST be good because it has millions of players". Numbers aren't everything usually.

Number aren't everything, but they ARE something.

 

You cannot say The Sims is a terrible game despite its stellar sales.  That just doesn't make any sense.  The purpose of a game is to entertain, and there is no way in the world you would see that many people buying a game that didn't entertain them.

At times, I LOVE The Sims and can play it for hours and days.  At other times, I can't believe I ever wasted so much time on it.  Overall, though, I have to say it's very good at what it sets out to do.

No game is going to appeal to everyone, but you can't say it's bad just because it doesn't appeal to you.

I personally don't like Guild Wars at all, but I know it's good at what it does, and part of the reason I know that is because a lot of people who enjoy PvP think it's great.

The point was numbers don't equate to quality. My original post was actually backing AoC, maybe it just didn't come off that way. Everyone today thinks if X game has X numbers more then the other game it must be better. I know 8 million Asians will disagree with me, but when the "next gen" EQ came out after EQ I stuck with UO because I personally thought it offered much more even after some of the crap they put in before EQ came out.

Let the haters keep talking while their server populations plummet, and turn into ghost towns.

Who cares, AoC will carve out a big community for itself and WoW will still have a huge amount of players. Niether of the 2 are going to kill each other.

Garrik

Actually I like the UI very much, simplistic and not in the way... exacly as the UI should be